The reigning Mr. Olympia is focusing on improvising his back for the 2025 bodybuilding season.
Samson Dauda claimed a historic victory at the 60th anniversary of Mr. Olympia, defeating former champions Derek Lunsford and Hadi Choopan on bodybuilding’s biggest stage in Las Vegas, Nevada. This win was particularly remarkable, as Choopan had outperformed Dauda earlier in the year at the Arnold Classic.
Dauda’s journey to the Olympia title was far from smooth. After beginning the year losing his Arnold Classic title to Choopan, he subsequently fell short again at the Arnold Classic UK. These setbacks raised questions about his conditioning, though he remained a strong contender for a top-three finish. Even legends like Jay Cutler expressed confidence in Dauda’s potential, suggesting he could deliver a standout performance with slight adjustments to his conditioning. Ultimately, Dauda silenced all doubts with his triumphant display at Mr. Olympia.
| Full Name: Samson Dauda (IFBB Bodybuilder) | ||
| Weight | Height | Date Of Birth |
| 275-330 lbs | 5’11” | 03/11/86 |
| Division | Era | Nationality |
| Men’s Bodybuilding | 2020 | Nigerian |
Despite facing setbacks, Samson Dauda persevered and rose through the ranks, securing a victory at the Tsunami Pro. Following his monumental win at Olympia in October, Dauda announced his intention to compete in the 2025 Arnold Classic, determined to bring the title home once again.
With his sights set on becoming a two-time Arnold Classic champion this March, Dauda has been putting in the work. Samson Dauda recently shared an intense back workout that is a key part of his competition training.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eaR_xw5qOU
Samson Dauda’s Back Workout
Samson Dauda briefly talks about his training for the Arnold Classic, which has been going smoothly. He says he’s loving the process and training. Before starting his back workout, Samson Dauda prepares pre-workouts, intra-workout, and post-workout shakes to help improve exercise performance (1).
Here is a list of his exercises.
| Exercises |
| Superset — Neutral Grip Lat Pulldowns & Cable Pullovers |
| Superset — Incline Bench Alternating Grip Lat Pulldowns & Seated Cable Rows |
| Hammer Strength High Rows |
| Rack Pulls |
Superset — Neutral Grip Lat Pulldowns & Cable Pullovers
Samson Dauda starts his back day exercise with a lat pulldown using a neutral grip. He uses D-handles for this exercise and does it with a close grip. Dauda takes a seat on the cable machine and grabs the handle. He does one set of 15-20 reps and supersets it with cable pullovers. Neutral grip lat pulldowns work the biceps, lats, traps, rhomboids, and rear delts with less strain on the wrists.
When he switches immediately to the cable pullovers, he uses a wide bar and an overhand grip and does 15-20 reps. Cable pullovers primarily work the lats. Other muscles include the chest, rear delts, and tricep muscles. Between these two exercises, he does four sets and takes a break while preparing for the next superset.
Superset — Incline Bench Alternating Grip Lat Pulldowns & Seated Cable Rows
Next on the champion’s list of exercises is the incline bench alternating grip lat pulldown. He also uses D-handles for this exercise and alternates his grip from neutral to underhand. He does his first set of exercises and immediately supersets this, doing a seated cable row. The incline bench alternating grip lat pulldown works your rhomboids, rear delts, biceps, traps, and lat muscles.
Still using the D-handles and a pair of wrist wraps, he sits to perform some seated cable rows. Seated cable rows target your rear delts, biceps, forearms, and erector spinae. He does four sets for these supersets.
Hammer Strength High Rows
Samson Dauda then moves to a Hammer Strength machine to do a high row. He does this exercise unilaterally and focuses on each side of his target muscle. This builds a better mind-muscle connection, which is effective for muscle hypertrophy (2). Dauda progressively adds weight for this exercise and does three sets in total. The Hammer Strength high row targets the rear delts, traps, biceps, rhomboids, and lat muscles.
Rack Pulls
For the last back day routine in this video, Samson Dauda does rack pulls. However, before he starts this exercise, he takes his intra-workout drink and begins his sets. He uses wrist wraps on the barbell and pulls up. He progressively loads the barbell and wears a lifting belt.
The rack pull is a weight training exercise that works the posterior chain and the quads, forearms, wrists, and grip strength. As Samson Dauda wraps up his back session, he discusses preparing for the Arnold Classic. Samson Dauda shares that he intends to push harder and improve his back development.
“Back is nice and intense, heavy, aggressive, and we’re just going for broke. Really pushing for it. That’s something we want to see more improvements on coming to the stage this year, more back development.”
-Samson Dauda
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References
- van Loon L. J. (2014). Is there a need for protein ingestion during exercise?. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 44 Suppl 1(Suppl 1), S105–S111. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-014-0156-z
- Calatayud, J., Vinstrup, J., Jakobsen, M. D., Sundstrup, E., Brandt, M., Jay, K., Colado, J. C., & Andersen, L. L. (2016). Importance of mind-muscle connection during progressive resistance training. European journal of applied physiology, 116(3), 527–533. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-015-3305-7
